Devin Hewitt knows exactly what people are thinking when they see him compete in pole vault. He was thinking the same thing when he was dragged out of badminton practice five years ago to check out a group of people launching themselves about four metres using a pole.

"I came out, looked at it and thought, 'You are crazy,'" Hewitt recollects.

Something hooked him onto the sport, though.

Pole vault is a fine-line between glory and rejection and Hewitt has seen his share of both.

It's those moments, treading between greatness and failure, where the senior TISS Pirates student-athlete thrives. It's those moments that got him into pole vault and it's those moments that keep him going up and then up again even higher. The moments when Hewitt's nerves ultimately turn to excitement and jubilation and that's been happening more and more these days.

"It's hard to give up something when, I don't know how to word this. You just get a really good feeling of accomplishment like you're proud of yourself. Not a lot of people do this to begin with, they look at it and think you're crazy. So, to be the guy that everybody is watching and...," Hewitt said before cutting himself off from completing the sentence. "I don't know, I just like it."

He almost walked away from EOSSAA without hitting a height at all. He missed his opening two attempts at his starting height at 3.75-metres - a height he could have come close to surpassing two years ago - and was almost disqualified for cursing out of frustration.

On his third attempt he was uncontrollably shaking and even hyperventilating a bit, Hewitt said, scared that everything he's been working towards was going to end two weeks too soon. Instead he hit the mark and didn't stop there on way to earning TISS'senior boys pole vault record at 4.30-metres - which he had set at the Hungerford meet with 4.25.

"After (making the first successful jump) it was like as soon as I made it it took the piano off my back," Hewitt said. "After that the adrenaline was pumping."

Most people would pack up and leave if those emotions were always there. Instead, Hewitt has made his name on it and pops back up as much as the pole he uses.

He's had plenty of opportunity and reasons to stop competing in pole vault, finishing anywhere from the middle of the pack to last-place more times than not in his inaugural midget season. Hewitt could have quit, some people would have. It's just not who is, he insists.

"You get down on yourself and see these other guys doing better, but I stuck with it and never really quit anything, so it's worked out for me and I'm glad I did," said Hewitt, who has been getting some training sessions in with Doug Wood, who competed in the 1992 Olympics, in Bolton, Ont. since November. "It pushes me when I see people doing better than me. I want to be that good, I want to be that guy. So, I just keep working at it and hopefully get there one day."

Those days of being at the back of the standings are long behind him.

Hewitt looks at this year as being his season of all the seasons he's been doing this. He hasn't been training to become an OFSAA medallist for just this season. He's been at it for the last five years in hopes of peaking at this moment and landing on the podium.

He gets excited even talking about OFSAA - which will be his third time there if he can get by the competition at East Regionals on Friday. He points to his shaking hands when mentioning the all-Ontario high school meet to show his enthusiasm.

"You can probably hear it in my voice because I'm getting excited just thinking about it," said Hewitt, finishing fifth at OFSAA last year.